2017 Discovery Land Rover – New and Bolder

The most anticipated car of the year has been the 2017 Land Rover Discovery. With Land Rover having earned its reputation for off-roading, coming up with a model that meets the modern buyers’ demand of suppleness and luxury has been a bit of an exciting challenge. The Land Rover Discovery seems to have fulfilled this challenge and has emerged with thrilling features that explain why it has been the one car people have been looking forward to.

The fifth-generation Discovery was unveiled in 2016 at the Paris Motor Show. This is an auto show held in Paris every two years in October and it is ground for debuting new production automobile and car concepts. At this show, Land Rover was keen to put forth and reveal two big mechanical updates which are a new platform and a newly-modified engine line-up – factors that are certain to bring:

Refinement

Comfort

Efficiency

Land Rover has shed its usual basic, agricultural look. It now takes form in a fluid new shape with a more posh cabin. Many even liken it to the Range Rover Sport. The two-box design of previous generations has been replaced by a more rounded appearance with a minimally stepped roof and heavily canted rear side pillar. It also positions seating in such a way that each row is slightly higher than the one in front. The similarities of the Discovery Land Rover with the Range Rover Sport even go as far as the interior design too.

As with the new Jaguar models in our New Beginnings – Aluminium Construction in the Next Generation of Jaguar Models article, the Discovery Five 480kg weight saving comes from the body construction that is 83% aluminium, with 43% of it made out of recycled sources. The new model is 4970mm long, 2220mm wide and 1846mm tall. This is 141mm longer but narrower and lower than the vehicle that precedes it. The 2923mm wheelbase is 38mm longer than before in order to accommodate and benefit the passenger room.

Although its look has changed, it still remains true to its purists who love the Land Rover for its off-road capability and workhorse reputation. It will still be known as the core off-roader of the fleet and fulfill its duty to family buyers who look for comfort on the road and ability to do practical everyday tasks. Enthusiasts who also have been with Discovery long-term and prefer to use it for towing horseboxes and caravans will still be satisfied with the new make.

Land Rover has revealed that the seven-seat model’s towing capacity is a hefty 3 500kg, as before. It even has a new feature called Advanced Tow Assist that uses semi-autonomous technology to handle and split the task of maneuvering the load between the car and the driver. In other words, the car will steer itself while automatically calculating where to go and how much steering lock will be needed as the driver on the other hand focuses strictly on what’s attached to the back, guiding the load through the dial on the centre console.

The Advanced Tow Assist is also coupled with a Trailer Light Test that “pulses” trailer lights from within the vehicle, enabling the driver to check whether they’re working or not, without assistance. Additionally, the Discovery 5 has an Electrically Deployable Towbar and are the first to get it coupled with Nose Load Measurement to help avoid overloading.

The Rear Height Adjustment is also available to allow you to raise or lower the trailer using the keyfob or switches in the boot while a Hitch Assist guides you onto the trailer mounting point with the help of external cameras and the central display screen. Lastly, the Trailer Stability Assist detects the trailer sway on the move and gently manages your speed in accordance to what’s appropriate for a trailer and brings it back under control.

Moving from the exterior to the interior, Land Rover did not scale down on the surprises and the boldness. The Land Rover Discovery 5 has a new infotainment screen which is 25.4cm wide. It connects with your smartphone and uses the main display to incorporate a 4G Wi-Fi hotspot that can be used by up to 8 devices. There are also nine USB ports on-board, along with 12V charging points that can power up phones.

The interior has storage too that’s a centre console bin meant to accommodate four iPads while the centre armrest can hold five iPad minis or be used as a chiller compartment. This is a 65% increase in cabin storage. To ride on the modern wave of being technologically savvy, Land Rover has also installed Intelligent Seat Fold technology that enables you to control seats using your smartphone or tablet.

Speaking of seats, the new model has an upgrade feature that offers massaging but is only accessible for the driver and the front passenger. All the three rows of seats in the car have heating available, with just the first and the second rows getting a cooling option. Land Rover Discovery 5 also extended its modern technological innovations to a Park Assist attribute, Blind Spot Assist systems and Autonomous Emergency Braking that finally includes pedestrian detection. The other safety tech characteristics are:

Lane keep assist

Lane departure warning

Regular blind spot monitoring

Adaptive cruise control

Traffic sign recognition

Automatic lighting

Available engine choices for the new Discovery:

2.0-litre SD4 turbodiesel four-cylinder 237bhp, 248kg m, 8.3sec 0-62mph, 43.5mpg, 171g/km: This is a new engine for the new model, and the most powerful Ingenium diesel to date

3.0-litre Td6 turbodiesel V6 254bhp, 298kg m, 8.1sec 0-62mph, 39.2mpg, 189g/km: while that’s only a 2bhp improvement over the old Disco Td6, 0-62mph is 1.3sec faster and CO2 emissions are down from 203g/km